Romney taps Rep. McMorris Rodgers as his House-liaison

Erika JohnsenPosted at 5:03 pm on June 4, 2012

Amongst all of the veepstakes-chatter, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ name has come up pretty regularly. She’s sometimes talked about as a sort of updated Sarah Palin for 2012, with the same Republican-woman appeal but perhaps a bit less of a firecracker. She declared her support for Mitt Romney pretty early on last December, and has since stumped on his behalf fairly frequently. A possible solid and competent choice, but she’s also said that she isn’t sitting around waiting for the VP-call. Even if that’s the case, the Romney camp evidently thinks its been a productive relationship, and has asked Rep. McMorris Rodgers to act as his liaison to the House of Representatives:

McMorris Rodgers will join Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Romney’s point man in the Senate, in leading the campaign’s efforts to coordinate with members of Congress as the GOP presidential nominee campaigns against President Obama.

“She understands the impact of the economic challenges Americans face and the need to put our country on a better track,” Romney said in a statement. “As a member of the leadership team in the House, she will be a helpful partner in our efforts to ensure our focus remains on the critical issue of economic security for all Americans.”

As the vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, McMorris Rodgers is a member of the GOP leadership and is the highest-ranking Republican woman in the House. She is responsible for coordinating messaging, policy and logistics for the 242-member GOP conference. …

As liaison, McMorris Rodgers will be responsible for ensuring that lawmaker messaging “is getting to the Romney campaign,” and that members are similarly up to date on the campaign’s talking points, a source close to the congresswoman told The Hill. She will also bring in policy experts from the Romney campaign to meet with members as needed and brief lawmakers on the former governor’s day-to-day activities and schedule.

Looks like Team Romney may be heading in a different direction as far as a running mate is concerned (I’m seeing a lot of speculation around Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. Rob Portman, and Sen. Rand Paul recently), but I think Rep. McMorris Rodgers will be good with this. We’ve got not just the presidency but Congress to worry about this November as well, and presenting a united front is going to be clutch.